Rigid, hinged-lid packets of cigarettes are currently the most widely marketed, by being easy to produce and easy and practical to use, and by effectively protecting the cigarettes inside.
In addition, rigid, slide- or swing-open packets of cigarettes have been proposed comprising two containers, one inserted inside and partly extractable from the other, i.e. an inner container containing a group of cigarettes and housed inside an outer container to move, with respect to the outer container, between a closed position inserted inside the outer container, and an open position extracted from the outer container. The movement of the inner container with respect to the outer container may be linear (slide-open) or rotary (swing-open) about a hinge connecting the two containers.
Embodiments of rigid, slide-open packets of cigarettes are described in FR2499947A3, U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,463A and U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,227A, and two embodiments of rigid, swing-open packets of cigarettes in WO03053818A1 and WO2006021581A1.
Patent EP2017198B1 describes a rigid, swing-open packet of cigarettes comprising: two inner packages, each containing a wrapped group of cigarettes; two inner containers, each housing a respective inner package and having a hinged lid; an outer container housing the two inner containers and having two opposite open lateral ends; and two hinges, each connecting an inner container to the outer container to allow the inner container to rotate between a closed position inserted inside the outer container, and an open position at least partly extracted from the outer container. The lid of each inner container has a control system, which connects the lid to the outer container to open the lid ‘automatically’ (i.e. without the user having to touch the lid) by exploiting the relative movement between the inner container and outer container. Each control system comprises a control tab extending inwards of the outer container from a top-wall edge of the outer container; and a slit formed through the top wall of the lid and engaged by the control tab.
The lid control system described in Patent EP2017198B1, however, has several drawbacks: when the inner container is in the closed position, the top wall of the lid must be kept well clear of the top wall of the outer container, thus preventing optimum use of the volume of the outer container, by having to leave a fairly large empty (i.e. unused) space at the top of the outer container.